Game of chance utilizing social network contact attributes

ABSTRACT

The disclosure includes a game of chance in which profile data for social contacts in a social networking system is used to determine whether a player wins or loses the game of chance. An indication that a first player desires to be included in a game provided on a social network system is stored. The game randomly selects a subset of a plurality of social contacts of a second player. In response to determining that the first player is included in the randomly selected subset of the plurality of social contacts, an award is provided to the first player.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional application that claims prioritybenefit of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/464,964 filed 5 May 2012, whichclaims priority benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/483,633filed 6 May 2011.

LIMITED COPYRIGHT WAIVER

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patentdisclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patentfiles or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rightswhatsoever. Copyright 2011, WMS Gaming, Inc.

FIELD

Embodiments of the inventive subject matter relate generally to games ofchance, and more particularly to games that include social networkcontact data in the game mechanics.

BACKGROUND

The use of social networking systems such as Facebook and MySpace hasdramatically grown over time. A feature that has been added to socialnetwork systems is the ability to play games within the socialnetworking system. The games provide a mechanism for the game providerto obtain social contact data for the player and the player's contacts.The popularity of such games depends on the likelihood (or perceivedlikelihood) of winning the game and the intrinsic entertainment value ofthe game relative to other options. Shrewd game developers thereforestrive to employ the most entertaining and exciting machines, features,and enhancements available because such games attract players andtherefore increase the amount of profile data available to the gameoperator.

SUMMARY

A game system and its operations are described herein. In someembodiments, the operations can include storing an indication that afirst player desires to be included in a game provided on a socialnetwork system. The game randomly selects a subset of a plurality ofsocial contacts of a second player. In response to determining that thefirst player is included in the randomly selected subset of theplurality of social contacts, an award is provided to the first player.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

Embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the Figures of theaccompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a general operating environment in which embodimentsof the invention may be practiced.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a method for using social contactdata from a social networking system into a game of chance.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are example user interfaces for a game of chanceincorporating social network data.

FIG. 5 is a diagram providing further details on a reel symbol accordingto embodiments.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a method for using social contactdata from a social networking system into a game of chance.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a system for using awards from agame of chance incorporating social network data according toembodiments of the invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a system that obtains data fromone or more of multiple third party systems for incorporation into agame of chance according to embodiments.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example game symbol used in a fantasy sport leaguebased game.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example mapping of third party data to gamesymbols.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of an example embodiment of a computer systemupon which embodiments of the inventive subject matter can execute.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

This description of the embodiments is divided into five sections. Thefirst section provides an introduction to embodiments of the invention,while the second section describes example operating environments. Thethird section describes example operations performed by some embodimentsand the fourth section describes further example system architectures.The fifth section presents some general comments.

Introduction

This section provides an introduction to some embodiments of theinvention. In general, the embodiments of the invention include a gameof chance in which profile data for social contacts in a socialnetworking system is used to determine whether a player wins or losesthe game of chance. As used herein, a game of chance is a game thatprovides an uncertain outcome predominately determined by chance. Socialcontacts are randomly selected from a group of social contacts. Thesocial contacts may come from a single source, or they may be aggregatedfrom multiple sources. A game player wins if the randomly selectedsocial contacts have one or more profile attributes that match eachother. In some embodiments, the one or more profile attributes matchboth the player's attribute and the randomly selected social contacts'attributes. In particular embodiments, the game is presented as a slotsbased game in which profile pictures for the social contacts are thesymbols for the reels of the slots game.

Operating Environment

This section describes an example operating environment and presentsstructural aspects of some embodiments.

FIG. 1 illustrates a general operating environment 100 in whichembodiments of the invention may be practiced. Operating environment 100includes a social network system 102 and a game 108. Examples of suchsocial network systems include Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn. Theembodiments of the invention are not limited to any particular socialnetwork system. Generally speaking, social network system 102 is asystem that maintains a set of social contacts. Such social contacts maybe friends, acquaintances, business colleagues, family members etc.

Social network system 102 maintains social contacts data 104 for usersof social network system 102. Such social contacts data includes listsof social contacts associated with a user. Social contacts can be onlinefriends (e.g., Facebook friends), links (e.g., LinkedIn), businesscontacts, contacts from online address books, members of fantasy sportsleagues or other social network contacts. Additionally, social contactsdata includes attributes of the social contacts. Examples of suchattributes may include various combinations of name, current address,previous addresses, age, birth date, gender, relationship status,physical attributes, personal likes and dislikes, educationalbackground, employment background etc. In general, social contacts dataincludes any demographic or other data about a person that may beavailable from an available data source. The set of attributes for aparticular social contact may be referred to as a profile. Socialnetwork system 102 may provide an API (Application Program Interface)106 that allows applications such as game 108 to access the lists ofsocial contacts and social contact attributes maintained in socialcontacts data 104.

Game 108 is a game of chance that uses the social contact data as partof the game mechanics. Game 108 may be any type of game of chance. Insome embodiments, game 108 is a video slot machine game. In alternativeembodiments, game 108 may be a card game, a simulated race (such as ahorse race or car race), a dice game, or other game of chance. Furtherdetails on the operation of game 108 and the integration of socialcontact data in the mechanics of game 108 are provided below.

In some embodiments, game 108 is hosted by the social network system andoperates within a software framework provided by social network system102. In alternative embodiments, game 108 is hosted by a separate systemor server and operates outside of the software framework provided bysocial network system. In either case, game 108 may use API 106 toextract the desired social contact data 104.

Although FIG. 1 describes some embodiments, the following sectionsdescribe many other features and embodiments.

Example Operations

This section describes operations associated with some embodiments ofthe invention. In the discussion below, the flow diagrams will bedescribed with reference to the block diagrams presented above. However,in some embodiments, the operations can be performed by logic notdescribed in the block diagrams.

In certain embodiments, the operations can be performed by executinginstructions residing on machine-readable media (e.g., software), whilein other embodiments, the operations can be performed by hardware and/orother logic (e.g., firmware). In some embodiments, the operations can beperformed in series, while in other embodiments, one or more of theoperations can be performed in parallel. Moreover, some embodiments canperform less than all the operations shown in any flow diagram.

This section will discuss FIGS. 2-7. The discussion of FIGS. 2-6 willdescribe operations for providing a game of chance that utilizes profiledata for social network contacts to determine whether a player wins thegame. The discussion of FIG. 7 will describe operations for providingadditional awards when profile data of a first player is part of awinning combination of social contact for a game of chance played by asecond player.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a method 200 for implementing a gameof chance using social contact data. The method begins at block 202 byreceiving data for a group of social contacts. The data may includelists of contacts, and will include profile attributes for the contacts.As noted above, such attributes can include name, current address,previous addresses, age, birth date, gender, relationship status,physical attributes, personal likes and dislikes, educationalbackground, employment background etc.

Various embodiments may use different domains of data for the group ofsocial contacts. In some embodiments, the group may include a set ofsocial contacts associated with a player (e.g., “friends” of a player).The group may further include indirect social contacts (e.g., “friendsof friends”).

In alternative embodiments, the group of social contacts may includecontacts that share a particular characteristic or are interested in aparticular topic. For example, a group may include social contacts thatare interested in or have indicated they like a particular sport, aparticular team, a particular band, a particular activity or aparticular event. The characteristic or interest may be self-identified,that is, the user indicates an interest or characteristic.Alternatively, the interest or characteristic may be inferred based onthe user's profile or activity on the social network such as indicatingthe user “likes” or “dislikes” particular postings on the socialnetwork. The social contacts may be included in such a group regardlessof whether or not they are associated with the player.

In further alternative embodiments, the group of social contacts may beselected by a player. The player may select friends, family members orother persons for inclusion in the group. In some embodiments, selectionof a social contact may include sending an invitation to the socialcontact to participate in the game of chance.

Other groupings of social contacts may be used and are well within thescope of the inventive subject matter.

In order for a social contact to be included in the group of socialcontact, some embodiments may determine whether or not the socialcontact has provided permission for the game of chance to access thecontact's profile information. If such permission has not been provided,the social contact is not included in the group.

At block 204, the game randomly selects a subset of the social contactsfrom the group of social contacts. The number of contacts in theselected subset may vary depending on the type of game being played. Insome embodiments, the game is a slots based game of chance thatsimulates the operation of a slot machine. The symbols for the simulatedslot machine may be images associated with the selected social contacts,for example, the contact's profile picture. In such a game, the numberof randomly selected social contacts in the subset will be the number ofsimulated reels. Various other slot mechanics may be made part of thegame. For example, an interface allowing a player to stop a reel orreels at a desired time, or nudge a reel or reels to a differentposition may be part of the game. Additionally, various styles of reelmechanics and reel configurations may be used in various embodiments.For example, the reels may be cascading reels or wrap-around reels. Thereels may further be configured as a “Rubik's Cube”, with profilepictures appearing on the faces of the cube. A user interface in such anembodiment may allow a player to align the sides of a cube with profilepictures of users that have matching characteristics.

In a card based game, the number of randomly selected social contacts inthe subset may be the number of cards in a hand and the profile picturesmay be used as symbols on the cards. In a dice based game, a profilepicture may appear on the face of a die, and matches determinedaccording characteristics of the profiles that result from a simulatedthrow of a set of dice having profile pictures. In a video scratch cardbased game, profile pictures may be placed under the scratch-off area.

As noted above, the pictures used as slot reel symbols, card symbols,dice symbols or other game elements are profile pictures. In alternativeembodiments, other pictures may be used. For example, pictures that havebeen tagged with a social contact (e.g., having metadata indicating thename or other identification of the social contact in the picture) maybe used as a game symbol.

At block 206, the game determines if one or more profile attributesshared by the randomly selected subset of social contacts match. Forexample, in some embodiments, the game determines a match exists if allof the randomly selected contacts have the same age. Various types ofmatching may be used in different embodiments. In some embodiments, thegame may require an exact match. In other embodiments, fuzzy matchingmay be employed. For example, rather than requiring an exact match onage, the game may determine a match exists if the ages are within thesame decade, or within the five years of one another. Additionally, thegame may determine that matches exist for more than one attribute.

At block 208, if the game determines that a match on at least oneprofile attribute shared by the randomly selected social contactsexists, then the game provides an award to the player. In someembodiments, the award may be points. The points awarded may varydepending on the number of matching attributes. Further, the pointsawarded may vary depending on the odds of a match on the attributevalue. For example, an exact match on ages within the randomly selectedsocial contacts is less likely than a match on astrological sign, wherethere are only twelve possible values. Therefore the game may award morepoints for an exact match on age than would be awarded for a match onastrological sign.

In alternative embodiments, the award may comprise unlocking a featureof the game of chance, or a feature of a different game. For example,the award may unlock a bonus game or feature associated with a wageringgame available at a casino. Additionally, the award may unlock anepisode of a bonus game for a wagering game. Alternatively, the awardmay unlock or make available characters, character attributes (clothing,appearance, tools etc.) for a bonus game associated with a wageringgame. When the player goes to a casino to play the wagering game, thebonus game, episode, character or other feature is made available to theplayer.

Other awards may be provided in addition to, or instead of points. Forexample, in some embodiments, a virtual trophy, medal or badge may beawarded. In alternative embodiments, discounts coupons or certificatesfor goods or services may be awarded. The discount coupon or certificatemay be for a good or service that is known or assumed to be of interestto the player. For example, if the group of social contacts includesthose users who have expressed an interest in hockey, then the discountcoupon or certificate may be for discounted hockey tickets or hockeyequipment. In some embodiments, a player, prior to a game, selects oneor more discount coupons that the player may be interested in. Uponwinning a game, one or more of the preselected coupons may be awarded tothe player.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example user interface 300 for a game according toembodiments of the invention. The example interface shown in FIG. 3 isan example interface for a slot based game application incorporatingsocial contact profile data in the game mechanics. Interface 300includes a spin button 302, reel symbol group 304, spin score 310 andtotal score 312. Spin button 302 provide an interface to initiate a newround of the game by randomly selecting a subset of social networkcontacts. The images representing reel symbols (i.e., the contact'sprofile image) make up the reel symbols in reel symbol group 304. In theexample shown, three reels 306A-C are used in the game. Those of skillin the art having the benefit of the disclosure will appreciate that aslots based game may have more or fewer reel symbols arranged in variousgrid combinations. For example, in alternative embodiments, nine symbolsin a three by three grid may be used. Further alternative embodimentsmay have other symbol and grid size arrangements such as three by five,five by five, four by four etc. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, afourth reel symbol 308 is included as part of the game. Reel symbol 308represent the player's social contact profile data. In some embodiments,the match rules require that attribute values of the randomly selectedsocial contacts match attribute values of the player. In suchembodiments, the randomly selected social contacts change with eachspin, while the final reel, representing the player, does not change. Inalternative embodiments, matching of profile attribute values may bebased on the randomly selected social contact and need not include theprofile attribute values of the player.

Spin score 310 provides a scoring of the outcome of the current play (inthis example, a spin) of the game. In the example shown in FIG. 3, theoutcome of the current round of the game indicates that the threerandomly selected social contacts whose profile images appear as reelsymbols 306A-C had attributes whose values matched each other'sattribute values and attribute values for the player. Thus the gameawarded 25 points based on the fact that each of the three randomlyselected social contacts have ages in the 30's, where the player's ageis also in 30's. Additionally, the game awarded 5 points based on thefact that each of the three randomly selected social contact'sastrological sign is “Aries”, which matches the player's astrologicalsign.

Total score 312 provides a total score over multiple plays of the gameby the player. Thus the score from each round of play is added to thetotal score 312.

In some embodiments, user interface 300 includes a pay table 314. Paytable 314 provides information to a player regarding the number ofcredits or points that are provided for particular types of matches. Thenumber of credits for a particular type of match will typically dependon the probability of a match on the particular attribute. In theexample illustrated in FIG. 3, a match between a player birthday and asocial contact's birthday appearing in the reels is worth 100 credits. Amatch on a “like” (e.g., the social contact and the player bothindicated they liked the same web site, movie, book etc.) is worth 20credits. A star sign match is worth 10 credits, a location match (e.g.,the social contact and the player are located in the same location) isworth 5 credits and a match on gender is worth 1 credit. Those of skillin the art having the benefit of the disclosure will appreciate thatother attributes and match amounts are possible and within the scope ofthe inventive subject matter.

In addition to providing opportunities for game play, the socialcontacts that appear in the reel positions 306A-C may be potentialcandidates for addition to the player's social contact group. As notedabove, some embodiments of the invention determine a group of socialcontacts eligible for random selection as part of the game where thegroup is based on social contacts that have a shared interest in aparticular activity or topic. The presentation of social contacts thatoccurs as part of the game of chance provides a convenient way for theplayer to find social contacts that they know share their interest inthe activity. In some embodiments, the player can click on, or otherwiseselect the image 306. Upon such selection, the selected social contact'sprofile data may be presented to the player. For example, the player maybe taken to a web page for the social contact on the social networksite. The player may then choose to add the social contact to theirgroup of contacts (friends, links etc.).

FIG. 4 illustrates an example user interface 400 for a game according toalternative embodiments of the invention. In some embodiments, the reelsymbols may include logos or other branding images in addition to thesocial contacts. In the example illustrated in FIG. 4, reel symbol 402is a logo for a wagering game that may be provided in a casino. Reelsymbol 404 is a logo for a casino. The logo may be selected according tovarious factors. For example, the logo may be associated with a newwagering game that a manufacturer or casino wishes to promote.Alternatively, the logo may represent a recommendation for the playerbased on the player's interests. For example, the reel symbol 402 mayrepresent a logo for a wagering game that the system predicts the playerwould find enjoyable. Similarly, reel symbol 402 may represent a logofor a casino that is recommended to the player as a casino that theplayer would like to visit, or a casino that has wagering games that theplayer would find enjoyable. In some embodiments, the logo may beselected resulting in further information about the wagering game orcasino being presented to the user. For example, a web page describingthe wagering game or casino may be presented to the user.

Reel symbols comprising social contacts and logos may be combined invarious ways. For example, in cases where a player has few socialcontacts available for inclusion in a group, logos representing games,casinos, products or services may be added as reel symbols.Additionally, the mix of logos and social contacts that may be randomlyselected to be displayed as part of a game of chance may be used as anincentive to play the game. For example, if a player does not play veryoften, the mix of logos and social contacts may be adjusted such thatthe odds of getting a logo are comparatively high (thereby reducing theodds of getting a set of social contacts where the profile attributesmatch). As the player plays more often, the number of logos presentedmay be reduced, thereby increasing the odds of getting a set of socialcontacts having matching profile attributes and thus increasing the oddsthat the player wins the game of chance.

FIG. 5 is a diagram providing further details on a reel symbol 502according to embodiments. In some embodiments, reel symbol 502 includesan image 506 associated with a social contact profile (typically apicture selected by the owner of the profile). Reel symbol 502 may alsoinclude one or more of a profile name 504, profile status 508, and matchicons 510. Profile name identifies the social contact.

Profile status 508 is an area on the reel symbol that contains text orgraphics that indicate a current status for the profile. The status maybe provided by the profile owner (e.g., the profile owner updated thestatus using an interface provided by the relevant social network website) or the status may be provided automatically. For example, aprofile status may be automatically updated if the profile ownerindicates a “like” for a web site. Alternatively, participating ingames, surveys or other options provided by the social network orassociated with the social network may cause an automatic update ofprofile status 508. Profile status 508 may be a static area in someembodiments, while in alternative embodiments, profile status 508 may bea scrolling region of text or graphics.

Match icons 510 are used to indicate various matches between a socialcontact associated with a reel symbol and a player's social contactdata. In the example illustrated in FIG. 5, icons indicating five typesof matches are shown. These matches are birthday, likes, astrologicalsign, geographic position and gender. Those of skill in the art havingthe benefit of the disclosure will appreciate that other demographic orstatistical matches may be represented by other icons. As noted above,each type of match may be worth varying amounts of points. If ademographic aspect of a social contact represented by a reel symbolmatches that of the player, then the corresponding icon is highlightedin the reel symbol in some embodiments. Various types of highlightingmay be used, including making the icon brighter or blinking, shaking, orrotating the icon.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a method 600 for awarding points in agame of chance according to embodiments of the invention. The methodstarts at block 602, where a system executing the methods receives anindication that a first player's social contact information (e.g., datafrom the player social network system profile) is to be included in thegame of chance. The indication may come in a variety of ways. Forexample, in some embodiments, registering to play the game of chance isused as an indication that the player's social network contact data maybe included in the game. In alternative embodiments, the player may usea user interface to indicate that they want their social network contactdata to be included in the game. In general, any indicator that providesan “opt-in” functionality may be used.

At block 604, the game randomly selects a subset of social contacts aspart of a second player's play of the game of chance. The selection of asubset of social contacts may be performed as described above withreference to block 204 (FIG. 2).

At block 606, the game determines an award for the second player. Theaward may be determined as described above with reference to block 208(FIG. 2).

At block 608, the game determines if the first player was included aspart of the randomly selected set of social contacts. In someembodiments, the first player may be awarded points based on the firstplayer's inclusion in the randomly selected subset of social contacts.In alternative embodiments, in order for the first player to be awardedpoints, the first player must appear in the randomly selected subset ofsocial contacts and the second player must also have won points based atleast in part on at least one of the first player's attribute valuescontributing to a match of the other social contact's attribute values.In other words, in order for the first player to be awarded points, thesecond player must have won an award.

As will be appreciated from the above, in some embodiments, a playerneed not be playing the game in order to be awarded points. In fact, theplayer need not even be present or logged in to a social networking sitein order be awarded points.

In some embodiments, the game may provide or make available to a firstplayer a list or report of other players where the first player'sprofile was randomly selected to appear during the other players' gameplay. Such a feature provides incentive for the first player to checkback with the game to determine if the first player received any pointsor other awards while the first player was away from the game.

In addition to the operations described above in FIGS. 2-5, variousembodiments may incorporate additional features. For example, in someembodiments, a leader board may be maintained for the game of chance.The leader board presents the top scoring players along with theirscores. The leader board may be global in scope or it may be limited toa particular country, region, state, city or other geographic region.Further, the leader board may be limited to players having a particularinterest, such as players interested in a particular sport, sports teamor other activity.

In some embodiments, social contacts may be ranked based on the numberof points or awards they have earned playing the game of chance. Theranking may then be used by the game of chance when awarding points to aplayer. For example, an award amount may be enhanced or multiplied basedon the ranking of a social contact included in the randomly selectedsubset of social contacts.

In some embodiments, players may be organized into leagues ortournaments, where the system keeps track of the scoring for the playerin the league or tournament. In such embodiments, a leader board maydisplay only those players in the league or those players participatingin the league or tournament. The league or tournament may include adraft of social contacts to be included in the player's group of socialcontacts (i.e., a pool of contacts) that are available for randomselection as part of the game play. As part of the draft, the player mayselect social contacts for inclusion in their group of social contacts.In embodiments where rankings of social contacts may be used to provideadditional points or point multipliers, it is therefore advantageous forthe player to be associated with social contacts having a high ranking.

Some embodiments provide a challenge mode for game play. In thechallenge mode, players compete “head to head” with one another, withthe winner staying on to challenge another player. The game play inchallenge mode may be in real time such that the players are competingagainst one another simultaneously. The challenge mode may be part ofleague or tournament play, or it may be separate from a league ortournament.

In some embodiments, a player may be limited to a certain number ofplays of the game, or a certain duration of play of the game. In suchembodiments, a player may use points or even monetary value to purchasemore rounds of play or more time to play.

In some embodiments, a player may be required to spend points in orderto include social contacts in the group of social contacts that is usedas the basis for random selection. Similarly, the player may be requiredto spend points for the opportunity to be included in a social contactgroup that may be used to as the basis for random selection in anotherplayer's game.

Additionally, a player may spend points to acquire a particularbackground, reel color or other optional feature of the game of chance,or of another game such as a wagering game provided by a casinooperator. Similarly, certain features of a game may require sharing of acertain level of profile information with the game application. Advancedor more desirable features may require sharing more information, moredetailed information with the game application.

While FIGS. 1-6 have described systems, methods, and user interfaces fora game of chance having mechanics that incorporate social contacts andsocial contact data, FIG. 7 describes the interaction of the game withother systems.

Example System Architecture

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a system 700 for analyzing and using socialcontact data and award data. In some embodiments, system 700 includes asocial network system 102 and a game server 702. Additionally, system700 may optionally include or interface with one or more of a playertracking system 720 or loyalty system 722. Player tracking system 720 isa system that tracks play of wagering game machines in a casino orfamily of casinos by a player. Typically the player is assigned a playertracking card that associates the player with a player tracking account.The player inserts the card into a card reader on the wagering gamemachine. The player tracking system can thus track which wagering gamesthe player uses and the duration of play of the wagering games by theplayer. In addition, the player tracking system may store demographicdata for the player. In return for allowing the casino to track wageringgame usage of a player, the player is typically awarded loyalty pointsthat may be exchanged for goods or services at the casino.

Loyalty system 722 is similar to player tracking system 720. Loyaltysystem 722 comprises a system that tracks purchases of goods andservices from a registered user. Examples of such loyalty systemsinclude systems that implement a frequent flyer program, frequent buyerprogram, frequent renter program etc.

Game server 702 may include units that analyze social contact datareceived from multiple sources. For example, game server 702 may includea data analysis unit 706 that receives game social contact data 704 andapplies various heuristics to the data to make inferences, predictionsor recommendations about players based on the data. Game social contactdata 704 will typically include social contact data received from asocial network site for players of game 108, the player social contacts,and other social contacts that have allowed their social contact data tobe shared with the game 108.

Game server 702 may maintain an awards database 710. Awards database 710may be used to maintain data such as points earned by a player, or datarepresenting trophies, medals, badges, identifiers for unlocked games,features etc. In some embodiments, awards database 710 may be used topopulate data for a leader board 714. Leader board 714 identifies thetop players of a game 108. The leader board may be for all players ofgame 108. Alternatively, the leader board 714 may present the topplayers and scores for players in a geographic region such as a country,state, province, city etc., or the players in a league or tournament.Further, the leader board 714 may be for players having a particularinterest, such as players interested in a particular sport, sports teamor other activity.

In some embodiments, data analysis unit 706 may include demographic andpurchase or usage data from either or both player tracking system 720and loyalty system 722. Data from player tracking system 720 and loyaltysystem 722 may be matched with social contacts in game social contactdata 704 to produce aggregated demographic data 708. The addition ofsuch data allows the data analysis unit to potentially provide betterinferences, predictions or recommendations to interested parties and toprovide a more complete view of a social contact. For example, a casinomay use the aggregated data to provide recommendations or targetedadvertising to a player regarding wagering games or casino services thatmay be of interest to the player.

Game server 702 may also include an award conversion unit 712. In someembodiments, award conversion unit 702 converts points awarded to aplayer of game 108 into a different point system, for instance a pointsystem maintained by player tracking system 720 or by loyalty system724. For example, points awarded during play of game 108 may beconverted into frequent flyer points.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a system 800 that obtains datafrom one or more of multiple third party systems for incorporation intoa game of chance according to embodiments. As discussed above, suchthird party systems may be social network systems such as Facebook,Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Classmates.com, 4square etc. Additionally,third party systems may include systems that maintain data for fantasysports leagues, photo sharing sites, online address book systems orother systems that maintain demographic info.

The data obtained from the third party systems may be aggregated or usedseparately to provide games and game elements to players. In someembodiments, system 800 includes a game server 802 coupled to one ormore data sources 804-810 through a communications network 812. System800 may include either or both a wagering game machine 816 and onlinegame 814. Communications network 812 may be any type of network,including local area networks, wide area networks, private networks,public networks, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments,communication network 812 includes the Internet.

Game server 802 provides games or game elements for online games ofchance 814 or wagering games on wagering game machine 816. Such gameelements can include one or more of pay tables 826, math models 828 orgame symbol images 830. Pay table 826 defines payout amounts for variouscombinations of symbols that may be randomly generated by a wageringgame. For example, pay table 826 may define payout amounts forcombinations of reel symbols, cards, dice or other game elements. Mathmodel 828 defines parameters and functions for various elements thatdefine in mathematical terms aspects of a game. Game symbol images 830are images that appear on game elements such as reel symbols, cardfaces, die faces or other game elements.

Data sources 804-810 are third party systems (with respect to gameserver 802), that provide data that may be used by game server 802 tocustomize games provided as on line games 814 or games presented onwagering game machine 816. Data sources 804-810 may be any type ofsystem that can provide data for use in customizing a game. For example,in some embodiments, data source 804 is a system that maintains data fora fantasy sports league. The fantasy sports league can be any type ofsports league, including football, baseball, basketball, hockey etc. Insome embodiments, data source 806 can be a social networking system suchas Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, Classmates.com, 4square etc. Insome embodiments, data source 808 can be a photo sharing site such asFlickr. Data source 810 represents any of a multitude of other potentialdata sources such as systems providing financial data, investment data,dating systems (e.g., “match.com”), weather data, travel data etc. Datasource 810 may also be a repository of data for an online social game(e.g., “Farmville”) or gaming system (e.g., Xbox Live). The inventivesubject matter is not limited to any particular data source. Further, itshould be noted that game server 802 may have access to multiple datasources and can use the data sources alone or in combination to providegames or game elements.

Game server 802 includes an extract, transform and load (ETL) unit 820that obtains data from a data source and performs operations on theobtained data to transform the data into a form that can be used readilyby the server to provide customized games. In some embodiments, ETL unit820 obtains data through an API 834. API 834 is an interface that isprovided and published by the third party data source to enable systemsto obtain data from the data source. In some embodiments, API 834 may bea web service interface. As an example API, Facebook provides a“Facebook Data Connect” API that allows systems to obtain data from theFacebook social networking system. Other APIs that may be used includeSOAP or JSONG. In alternative embodiments, game server 802 may obtaindata from a structured file (e.g., an XML file) that is transferred fromthe data source to game server 802 over network 812.

In some embodiments, ETL unit 820 provides normalization and mappingfunctions using a data transformation process 824. Normalization mayinclude scaling or otherwise transforming the data so that the thirdparty data can conform to the requirements of a pay table or math modelused by a game provided by the game server. Normalization is desirablein some embodiments, because the normalized data can provide a betterbasis for randomly selecting or mapping data elements in the datasource.

ETL unit 820 may also map data received from data sources 804-110 togame elements (e.g., pay tables, math models, game symbol images etc.)or game templates for games provided by game server 802. Various typesof mapping are possible and will vary depending on the type of sourcedata. For example, in the case of fantasy sports leagues, pointsaccumulated by a sports player based on their performance over a periodof time may be used to map the sports player's image and performancedata to a game symbol such as a reel symbol, a card face, or the face ofa die. An online game or wagering game player may specify their fantasyleague team, and the team's players' fantasy points and other data maybe used as part of the mapping. Thus the game symbols are personalizedto the wagering game player based on statistics taken from the player'sfantasy sports team.

As noted above, other types of data can be used to personalize orcustomize a game of chance or a wagering game. Data from a game player'sstock portfolio may be used. As an example, stock symbols may be mappedto game symbols. The stock symbols may be mapped such that the highestgaining stocks could be mapped to symbols with a higher payback.Similarly, demographic data obtained from a social network site usingthe wagering game player login credentials may be used to map images offriends to game symbols. Likewise, photos obtained from photo sharingsites may be mapped to game symbols using metadata associated with thephotos.

Mapping may be accomplished in various ways. In some embodiments, a gamedesigner may provide a mapping of various data elements in various datasources to game elements of a game. In alternative embodiments, a gameplayer can specify a mapping of data elements to game elements. Forexample, a game player may choose to map a fantasy football team to gamesymbols. The game player may identify particular data elements theplayer is interested in such as fantasy points, college, position etc.that are to be used in the mapping. In further alternative embodiments,heuristics may be employed that analyze a data source's data elementsand automatically determines a mapping from data elements to gameelements.

Thus in some embodiments, game server 802 obtains data 860 obtained froma third party data source. The data may be pushed to game server 802 orthe data may be pulled by game server 802 from a data source. Afterobtaining the data, a data transformation process transforms the data(e.g., normalizes, scales or otherwise transforms the data) into a formthat can be used by a game engine 840 to provide games such as onlinegame 814 or games on a wagering game machine 816. Although shown as partof game server 802, game engine 840 may reside within a socialnetworking site, within a wagering game machine, within an online gameclient.

Player profiles 832 may be used by a game server 802 to determine whichdata sources to obtain data from. Player profiles are typicallyassociated with a player identification. The profile for a player insome embodiments includes various data sources that the player isinterested in using to personalize or customize a game. Upon logging into an online game or wagering game, for example by inserting a playertracking card or entering login credentials, the game server can usedata from the data sources in the game player's profile to customize awagering game or online game for the game player.

In some embodiments, an AI (Artificial Intelligence) unit 850 analyzesthe data by applying rule sets or other heuristics to determine whichdata elements from data sources 804-810 to use in a game. AI unit 850may filter duplicate data. Further, AI unit 850 may determine theobjects and data elements that are to be used to meet desiredcharacteristics for the game. In some embodiments, the time that aplayer or contact most recently visited a web site or played a game maybe used to determine whether the data is included for a game. The gamemay include data for most recently visited sites. In alternativeembodiments, the amount of time a player or contact spent at a site maybe used to determine if the data is to be included for a game. The gamemay include data from sites where the player or contact spent arelatively greater amount of time and exclude data from sites where theplayer or contact spent a relatively lesser amount time.

As noted above, data from multiple sources may be aggregated to providea larger domain of data for a game to use. For example, a game may usesocial contact data from Facebook, LinkedIn, and classmates.com in orderto provide a broader range of social contact data to work with thanwould be available from a single source. The aggregated data may be usedto create a “collage” of a players activities over a particular timeframe (for example, a week). The collage of activities may then be usedto match against the player's social contacts with points awarded asdiscussed above. For example, aggregated location data may be used todetermine various locations that the player visited during the pastweek. Locations that the player's social contacts visited during thesame time period may be used as matching criteria for a game, withpoints awarded based on the social contact having visited the same placethat the player visited. Alternatively, location data could be used todetermine a distance traveled and the distance used to match with theplayer's social contacts.

Aggregated data may be used as a secondary data source to supplementdata from a primary source. For example, assume that a player chooses toplay a game using their social contacts from a first social networkingsite. If the player does not have a sufficient number of contacts in thefirst social networking site to meet desired probabilistic behavior forthe game, data from a second social network site may obtained and usedto supplement the data from the first site.

The aggregated data may also be analyzed and used as a qualifier forparticular types of games that may be offered to the player. Forexample, if the analyzed data indicates that the player is interested infinancial subjects, then games with a financial theme may be offered tothe player.

In some embodiments, a player may be awarded additional prizes or a paytable award amount may be increased if a social contact appears acrossmultiple sources of data.

In alternative embodiments, other data besides social contact data isused instead of or in addition to social contact data to provide onlinegames or wagering games. For example, fantasy sports league data,financial data, or other types of data may be used in variousembodiments.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example game symbol 900 used in a fantasy sportleague based game. In the example illustrated in FIG. 9, fantasyfootball league data is used. Symbol 900 includes an image area 902 thatcomprises an image of a football player from a wagering game player'sfantasy football league team. Statistics area 904 provides one or morestatistics for the football player mapped to the game symbol 900. Thestatistics area may display a subset of available statistics, and mayinclude fewer or more statistics than were used in the mapping.Alternatively, the statistics area may be a scrolling region on thesymbol, with statistics scrolling across the statistics area. While theexample illustrated in FIG. 9 shows a horizontal statistics area on thebottom of the game symbol, those of skill in the art having the benefitof the disclosure will appreciate that a statistics area could bepresented vertically or some other orientation, and at the top or sidesor other position of the game symbol.

The statistics area may include various data and statistics regardingthe player mapped to the game symbol. Such data and statistics mayinclude in various embodiments current injury status (out (O), doubtful(D), questionable (Q), probable (P))) and abbreviated statistics for hismost recent week of play (e.g., rush yards, receiving yards, passingyards, number of touchdowns), player name, uniform number, position,team name, years of experience, college, height, weight, date of birth,most recent week's statistics, season-to-date statistics, player news,etc. Fantasy points for current week can be based on either a particularleague's scoring system or a typical scoring system.

In some embodiments, fantasy sports league data may be used in amatching based game similar to that as described above for socialcontact data. In such embodiments, attributes of one or more members ofa player's fantasy sports team may be compared with similar attributesof other fantasy sports teams in a league. Upon detecting a matchbetween the attributes, the player may be awarded points or credits.Using a fantasy football league as an example, attributes such as yardsgained, touch downs, college attended, years in league etc. may becompared and upon detecting a match, credits may be awarded. Those ofskill in the art having the benefit of the disclosure will appreciatethat other attributes in a football league may be used, and that otherattributes in other fantasy sports teams may be used and are within thescope of the inventive subject matter.

The data may be used in other ways, and as discussed above, the data maybe mapped to symbols of a casual game or wagering game. FIG. 10illustrates an example mapping 1000 of third party data to game symbols.In the example illustrated in FIG. 10, a wagering game player's fantasysports league team data is mapped to symbols, with the current weeksfantasy points being used to map from players in the league to certainsymbols of a slots based wagering game. As indicated in the “SymbolHierarchy”, the wagering game incorporates high symbols, medium symbolsand low symbols along with a bonus symbol and a wild symbol. Highsymbols are associated with high payout amounts, medium symbols areassociated with medium payout amounts, and low symbols are associatedwith low payout amounts. The math model 828 (FIG. 8) associated with thesymbol hierarchy may be a predetermined math model (i.e., each reelstrip has a predetermined layout of symbols so as to yield winningsymbol combinations having associated payouts and probabilities ofoccurrence, thereby yielding a slot game with a predetermined overallpayback percentage, e.g., 90%). Winning symbol combinations may, forexample, be three, four, and five occurrences of a particular symbolappearing “left-to-right” along an active payline.

A bonus symbol, if it appears on a reel, causes a bonus game tocommence. In some embodiments, a predetermined number of bonus symbols,e.g., three, are required in order to trigger a bonus game. The bonussymbols need not appear on a payline in order to trigger a bonus game. Awild symbol matches any symbol, with the potential exception of thebonus symbol.

As illustrated in the example shown in FIG. 10, the player with thehighest fantasy point total for the current week is mapped to the bonussymbol, the player with the next highest fantasy point total for thecurrent week is mapped to the wild symbol, followed by mapping playersto the high, medium and low symbols in descending order of fantasypoints for the current week. Those of skill in the art having thebenefit of the disclosure will appreciate that other mappings arepossible and within the scope of the inventive subject matter. In theexample shown in FIG. 10, the mapping was based on a current week'sdata. The mapping may be based on other time periods such as ayear-to-date, current season, previous season etc. Additionally, otherdata or statistics may be used in the mapping. For example, the wildsymbol may be assigned to the player whose performance statisticsexhibited the largest variance from their average performance. Thus aplayer who had a mediocre or even low average rating, but a much betterthan normal week, may be assigned a symbol. In further embodiments,improvement in player statistics may be used to map players to gamesymbols.

As discussed above, other types of data may be used in addition to orinstead of sports data. For instance, a wagering game player's stockportfolio may be mapped to game symbols. As an example, the wageringgame player's highest performing stock may be assigned to the bonussymbol, with other high performing stocks assigned to the wild, high,medium and low symbols.

Data from corporate loyalty systems may be used to create a matchingbased slots game. For example, a coffee shop may maintain data in acustomer loyalty system that tracks types of drinks ordered bycustomers. The data may be used in matching based slots games in severalways. In some embodiments, the type of drink ordered may be a comparisoncriterion. In such embodiments, points are awarded to social contactsthat ordered the same type of drink. In alternative embodiments, thedata may be used as a qualifier to enter a social contact based slotsgame. In such embodiments, the player is allowed to play a socialcontact based slots game if they have ordered a particular type ofdrink. The particular type of drink may be specified by the shopproprietor as a way of promoting sales of that type of drink. The typeof drink may be used in the slots game as a bonus symbol.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of an example embodiment of a computer system1100 upon which embodiments of the inventive subject matter can execute.The description of FIG. 11 is intended to provide a brief, generaldescription of suitable computer hardware and a suitable computingenvironment in conjunction with which the invention may be implemented.In some embodiments, the invention is described in the general contextof computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, beingexecuted by a computer. Generally, program modules include routines,programs, objects, components, data structures, etc., that performparticular tasks or implement particular abstract data types.

As noted above, the system as disclosed herein can be spread across manyphysical hosts. Therefore, many systems and sub-systems of FIG. 11 canbe involved in implementing the inventive subject matter disclosedherein.

Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the inventionmay be practiced with other computer system configurations, includinghand-held devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based orprogrammable consumer electronics, network PCS, minicomputers, mainframecomputers, and the like. The invention may also be practiced indistributed computer environments where tasks are performed by I/Oremote processing devices that are linked through a communicationsnetwork. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may belocated in both local and remote memory storage devices.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 11, a hardware and operating environmentis provided that is applicable to both servers and/or remote clients.

With reference to FIG. 11, an example embodiment extends to a machine inthe example form of a computer system 1100 within which instructions forcausing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein may be executed. In alternative example embodiments,the machine operates as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g.,networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, the machine mayoperate in the capacity of a server or a client machine in server-clientnetwork environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer (ordistributed) network environment. Further, while only a single machineis illustrated, the term “machine” shall also be taken to include anycollection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (ormultiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein.

The example computer system 1100 may include a processor 1102 (e.g., acentral processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU) orboth), a main memory 1104 and a static memory 1106, which communicatewith each other via a bus 1108. The computer system 1100 may furtherinclude a video display unit 1110 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD)or a cathode ray tube (CRT)). In example embodiments, the computersystem 1100 also includes one or more of an alpha-numeric input device1112 (e.g., a keyboard), a user interface (UI) navigation device orcursor control device 1114 (e.g., a mouse), a disk drive unit 1116, asignal generation device 1118 (e.g., a speaker), and a network interfacedevice 1120.

The disk drive unit 1116 includes a machine-readable medium 1122 onwhich is stored one or more sets of instructions 1124 and datastructures (e.g., software instructions) embodying or used by any one ormore of the methodologies or functions described herein. Theinstructions 1124 may also reside, completely or at least partially,within the main memory 1104 or within the processor 1102 duringexecution thereof by the computer system 1100, the main memory 1104 andthe processor 1102 also constituting machine-readable media.

While the machine-readable medium 1122 is shown in an example embodimentto be a single medium, the term “machine-readable medium” may include asingle medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributeddatabase, or associated caches and servers) that store the one or moreinstructions. The term “machine-readable medium” shall also be taken toinclude any tangible medium that is capable of storing, encoding, orcarrying instructions for execution by the machine and that cause themachine to perform any one or more of the methodologies of embodimentsof the present invention, or that is capable of storing, encoding, orcarrying data structures used by or associated with such instructions.The term “machine-readable medium” shall accordingly be taken toinclude, but not be limited to, solid-state memories and optical andmagnetic media that can store information in a non-transitory manner,i.e., media that is able to store information for a period of time,however brief. Specific examples of machine-readable media includenon-volatile memory, including by way of example semiconductor memorydevices (e.g., Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM),Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM), and flashmemory devices); magnetic disks such as internal hard disks andremovable disks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks.

The instructions 1124 may further be transmitted or received over acommunications network 1126 using a transmission medium via the networkinterface device 1120 and utilizing any one of a number of well-knowntransfer protocols (e.g., FTP, HTTP). Examples of communication networksinclude a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), theInternet, mobile telephone networks, Plain Old Telephone (POTS)networks, and wireless data networks (e.g., WiFi and WiMax networks).The term “transmission medium” shall be taken to include any intangiblemedium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructionsfor execution by the machine, and includes digital or analogcommunications signals or other intangible medium to facilitatecommunication of such software.

General

This detailed description refers to specific examples in the drawingsand illustrations. These examples are described in sufficient detail toenable those skilled in the art to practice the inventive subjectmatter. These examples also serve to illustrate how the inventivesubject matter can be applied to various purposes or embodiments. Otherembodiments are included within the inventive subject matter, aslogical, mechanical, electrical, and other changes can be made to theexample embodiments described herein. Features of various embodimentsdescribed herein, however essential to the example embodiments in whichthey are incorporated, do not limit the inventive subject matter as awhole, and any reference to the invention, its elements, operation, andapplication are not limiting as a whole, but serve only to define theseexample embodiments. This detailed description does not, therefore,limit embodiments of the invention, which are defined only by theappended claims. Each of the embodiments described herein arecontemplated as falling within the inventive subject matter, which isset forth in the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: storing, in amachine-readable medium communicably coupled to one or more processors,an indication that a first social contact of a plurality of socialcontacts desires to be included in an electronic game of chance providedon a computerized social network system; randomly selecting, based on anoutput of a random element generator, a subset of the plurality ofsocial contacts; presenting graphical objects representing the subset ofthe plurality of social contacts on a display during operation of theelectronic game of chance by a player; determining, by the one or moreprocessors, that a profile attribute of each of the subset of theplurality of social contacts stored in the machine-readable mediummatches a profile attribute of the player stored in the machine-readablemedium; determining, by the one or more processors, that the firstsocial contact is included in the subset of the plurality of socialcontacts; and in response to determining, by the one or more processors,that the profile attribute of each of the social contacts in the subsetof the plurality of social contacts stored in the machine-readablemedium matches the profile attribute of the player stored in themachine-readable medium and that the first social contact is included inthe subset, electronically communicating, via a network interface, anaward to the first social contact.
 2. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising determining that the subset of the plurality of socialcontacts resulted in a winning outcome for the player.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, and further comprising providing a report to the first socialcontact indicating that the first social contact was included in thesubset of the plurality of social contacts.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein the graphical objects representing the subset of the pluralityof social contacts comprise reel elements for reels of a slots basedgame.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of social contactsare associated with the player.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein theaward includes one or more of points, access to an online game, accessto a feature of a game, access to a bonus game, a discount on a good orservice, a virtual trophy, a virtual medal, or a virtual badge.
 7. Asystem comprising: one or more processors; a memory coupled to the oneor more processors; a machine readable medium communicably coupled tothe one or more processors, the machine readable medium to store aplurality of social contacts and an indication that a first socialcontact desires to be included in an electronic game of chance andexecutable by the one or more processors from the memory; a networkinterface communicably coupled to the one or more processors; and adisplay communicably coupled to the one or more processors; wherein theelectronic game of chance is configured to: randomly select, based on anoutput of a random element generator, a subset of the plurality ofsocial contacts of a player; present graphical objects representing thesubset of the plurality of social contacts on the display; determinethat a profile attribute of each of the subset of the plurality ofsocial contacts stored in the machine readable medium matches a profileattribute of the player stored in the machine readable medium; determinethat the first social contact is included in the subset of the pluralityof social contacts; and electronically communicate via the networkinterface an award to the first social contact in response todetermining, by the one or more processors, that the profile attributeof each of the social contacts in the subset of the plurality of socialcontacts stored in the machine readable medium matches the profileattribute of the player stored in the machine readable medium and thatthe first social contact is included in the subset of the plurality ofsocial contacts presented on the display.
 8. The system of claim 7,wherein the electronic game of chance is further configured to determinethat the subset of the plurality of social contacts resulted in awinning outcome for the player.
 9. The system of claim 7, wherein thesystem is configured to provide a report to the first social contactindicating that the first social contact was included in the subset ofthe plurality of social contacts.
 10. The system of claim 7, wherein theelectronic game of chance is a slots based game and wherein thegraphical objects comprise reel elements for reels of the slots basedgame.
 11. The system of claim 7, wherein the plurality of socialcontacts are associated with the player.
 12. A machine-readable storagemedium having stored thereon machine executable instructions, that whenexecuted, cause one or more processors to perform operations for anelectronic game of chance, the operations comprising: storing anindication that a first social contact desires to be included in theelectronic game of chance; randomly selecting, based on an output of arandom element generator, a subset of a plurality of social contacts ofa player; presenting graphical objects representing the subset of theplurality of social contacts on a display during operation of theelectronic game of chance by the player; determining that a profileattribute of each of the subset of the plurality of social contactsmatches a profile attribute of the player; determining that the firstsocial contact is included in the subset of the plurality of socialcontacts; and electronically communicate via a network interface anaward to the first social contact in response to determining, by the oneor more processors, that the profile attribute of each of the socialcontacts in the subset of the plurality of social contacts matches theprofile attribute of the player and that the first social contact isincluded in the subset of the plurality of social contacts.
 13. Themachine-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the operationsfurther comprise determining that the subset of the plurality of socialcontacts resulted in a winning outcome for the player.
 14. Themachine-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the operationsfurther comprise providing a report to the first social contactindicating that the first social contact was included in the subset ofthe plurality of social contacts.
 15. The machine-readable storagemedium of claim 12, wherein the graphical objects representing thesubset of the plurality of social contacts comprise reel elements forreels of a slots based game.
 16. The machine-readable storage medium ofclaim 12, wherein the plurality of social contacts are associated withthe player.
 17. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 12, whereinthe award includes one or more of points, access to an online game,access to a feature of a game, access to a bonus game, a discount on agood or service, a virtual trophy, a virtual medal, or a virtual badge.18. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein theplurality of social contacts share an interest, and wherein the award isselected in accordance with the interest.
 19. The machine-readablestorage medium of claim 12, wherein the award comprises points andwherein the operations further comprise adding the points to an accountassociated with the first social contact.
 20. The machine-readablestorage medium of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise:receiving a fee from the first social contact; and in response toreceiving the fee, making the first social contact eligible forinclusion in the subset of the plurality of social contacts.